Blinn’s livestock judging team wins prestigious contest

The team placed first in livestock and carload competitions in Denver

January 22, 2014

The Blinn College livestock judging team recently took top honors at one of the most prestigious livestock shows in the nation.

Blinn placed first out of 22 teams and claimed top honors in both the livestock and carload judging competitions at the National Western Stock Show in Denver, Colo., Jan. 16-17. With the win, the team becomes just the third in Blinn history to claim a national out-of-state title. The team is coached by Brice Mund and Joe Rathmann and directed by Doug Pierce.

In addition to the team’s accolades, sophomore Cody Doubet of Parker, Colo., placed first overall in the individual livestock judging event.

“There are three or four big livestock events put on in the nation each year, and this competition is certainly one of the most prestigious,” Mund said. “There haven’t been many teams that have won both events in the same year.”

The carload competition, held only at the National Western Stock Show, features four pens of cattle that competitors must rank in first through fourth place. Each pen contains four cattle that are judged as a group, unlike the livestock competition, which judges cattle individually.

Individual honors include:

Livestock
Doubet: first overall, first in reason, second in cattle, third in hogs
Sarah Weiss (Brenham): sixth overall, seventh in cattle
Ron Snyder III (Perryton): sixth in sheep, 10th in reason

“It was nice to go back to my home state and win,” Doubet said. “All my family was there. My dad told me before I went in that I had a home-field advantage.”

The Division of Agricultural Sciences is one of the fastest growing divisions at Blinn College with almost 800 students currently enrolled – roughly four times the size of any other two-year agricultural program in the state. Blinn offers agriculture classes on all of its campuses, with the W.J. “Bill” Rankin Agricultural Complex serving as the program’s hub.

In addition to its excellence in the classroom, Blinn offers extracurricular educational activities in the areas of livestock judging, agriculture club, wildlife, agriculture mechanics, horticulture and agriculture sciences.